I inherited N3.2bn debt on assumption of office, NAFDAC DG

Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director-General, National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says she inherited N3.2 billion as debt on assumption of office in 2017.

Adeyeye disclosed this before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, during an interactive session on the 2022 to 2024 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) on Thursday in Abuja.

She, however, said that she had been able to off set N3.1 billion from the debt, adding that the agency was in near comatose when she assumed office.

She said when she joined the agency, 80 per cent of the equipment were not working, there were no vehicles, laptops and other working tools.

She said that if the agency’s personnel costs were taken care of, NAFDAC would be self-sustaining, adding that the Federal Government could then pull out from funding the agency.

Adeyeye said that the agency was currently digitising its system to prevent leakages.

She said that that the agency was also building state offices in seven states across the country.

However, members of the committee had earlier asked the NAFDAC DG to make efforts to ensure that the agency became self-sustaining.

The committee also cautioned the agency to desist from repeating the same budgetary provision for certain projects.

“There is a preponderance of this line of issue of repeating budget by splitting project,” the committee observed.

Also, the Managing Director, Federal Housing Authority, Sen. Gbenga Ashafa, told the committee that the agency had not been in the budget of the Federal Government since 1999.

Ashafa said that the agency had been left to generate revenue and resources to cater for itself, adding that the agency had not remitted N608 million it generated to the federation account.

He, however, said that all the emolument of workers and salaries had been paid.

Ashafa said that a committee had been set up a committee to ensure that Nigerians in the Diaspora could have something to call their own back home
He said that the agency had embarked on a mass housing scheme in Zuba, FCT and that it was about 90 per cent completed.

The committee, however, directed FHA to ensure it remitted the N608 million revenue to the government.